To the person who searched for “spoiled salsa” –

I’m so sorry. I hope you found what you were looking for before you ingested the stuff, because eating it kind of sucks. I know, I’ve been there.

I originally got on here to proclaim the virtues of the most amazing dessert ever, which I sucked up and purchased from a local Indian restaurant tonight in honor of my impending exam tomorrow (in – you guessed it – chem! yay!) The latest laudable food is…kheer. Which, apparently, is extremely easy to make, but the Woman Who Can’t Make Toast (aka, me) didn’t realize that before purchasing the delicious kheer. Unlike my friend Liz who takes attractive pictures of her foods, I did not take a picture, mostly because I didn’t have my camera but also because a) I didn’t make it, and therefore it would almost be like the culinary version of plagiarizing, and b) it isn’t all that attractive. Just picture it in your head: white milky yumminess with rice. Yum.

I don’t know why I blog about food so much. It’s kind of funny, actually. Maybe it’s because I have so little going on otherwise (more probably that I cannot write about the other things that are going on).

One thing that is really really exciting is that a few weeks ago, I went over to food-picture-taking friend Liz’s place, where she, her husband TE, and her dog, the King, concocted an amazing brunch! She made phenomenal cinnamon rolls, since she knew that DB made them for me when he is in town, and a delicious fruit-Greek yogurt-granola dish. Delicious fruit-yogurt-granola concoction is on her blog here, but the cinnamon rolls are TBP (to be posted). Check her blog for pictures. She made them from scratch, and they were amazing. They were also lowish calories, because she’s doing this calorie restriction study, but I couldn’t tell. As I said, it was awesome. Sure beats cookie dough!

So I know I promised not to bring up chemistry, but actually, I think I am going to look back at this and either hang my head in shame or remember with joy that this was a fun summer of chemistry. So I’m trying to memorize what is endothermic (delta H is…positive?) and what is exothermic (I hope delta H is negative). For some reason my notes reflect both “truths”, although one is clearly not correct, and for a more mysterious reason, my brain absolutely refuses to absorb this particular tidbit of information. It’s a little obnoxious.

I made a little acronym for the differences between water and salt water: BFPS UDDU. Boiling point Freezing point vapor Pressure entropy(s) UDDU (ok, UDDU has no meaning whatsoever – Up Down Down Up – but it works nicely in my little schematic). BFP is what people on infertility blogs use for “Big Fat Positive” – as in the coveted second little line on a pee stick. (BFN is the negative. Sometimes the F in the middle also refers to other words in that particular instance). Adoption blogs and infertility blogs often run in tight circles, so I have read many an infertility blog. There is a whole language that goes with cyber-infertility discussions – AF for “aunt flo”, aka menstruation; TTC (trying to conceive), IF (infertility), IUI (intrauterine insemination), IVF (everyone knows what that is, and if you don’t, you need to listen to the radio more often), DPO (days past ovulation), OPK (ovulation predictor kit), PG (preggers), ER, ET, FET (egg retrieval, embryo transfer, frozen embryo transfer). It’s like a crazy acronym language all by itself. (I’m actually rather impressed that I knew all those off the top of my head. We are not going through infertility and we will never be doing IVF for myriad reasons beyond the scope of this ramble, so it is a little frightening that I am up on the lingo. Obsessed with babies much, maybe?)

Anyway, back to studying my BFPS UDDU and delta H and delta G and trying to figure out why it is that my brain so ardently rejects this. I did come up with another acronym: DOX. If I write it on the side of the schematic in the right places, it lines up well with the accurate delta Hs. That’s about as close as I’ve gotten with that. What is my problem?!?

PS – I started my autism post and realized that it’s pretty heavy stuff so I’m trying to figure out how to lighten it a bit. So many non-linear thoughts. Stay tuned. Eventually through the ramble there must be something exciting, right?

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4 comments

So true about the wooden coffee stirrers! Are you taking organic chemistry? My roommate in college used to wear her orgo set on her head as a crown while she was studying and that seemed to help a lot. She also used to sleep on her back because she was afraid all the knowledge would spill out her ears while she was sleeping. She finishes med-peds residency next year and already has a job lined up as an attending physician so I think these techniques must have worked. 🙂

Hi Christine! No…not orgo yet. I’m taking that in 3 (?) weeks? Honestly, it really is going to be a wonderful summer of bunsen burners and random chemicals. I’m on the “I made a last-minute decision and want to be done with a lab that requires contact with tetragenic substances” track. 🙂 Thanks for the tips from your roommate – sounds like she had it figured out!